Barcelona Vs Borussia Dortmund, Blaugrana's Perfect Party

BARCELONA, THURSDAY — Barcelona placed one foot in the semifinals after defeating Borussia Dortmund 4-0 at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium, early Thursday morning (10/4/2025) Western Indonesia Time. Dortmund's plan to alter Barca's identity in this match completely failed. On the contrary, it paved the way for Barca to perfect their goal-scoring celebration.

Robert Lewandowski shone in this match by contributing two goals to Barca's victory. Once again, Lewy, as he is affectionately called, became a nightmare for Dortmund, the club he once played for over four seasons. Not many footballers are so lethal against their former clubs, except for Lewy. To date, Lewy has scored a total of 29 goals and provided three assists in 28 matches against Dortmund.

"I am very happy. I always think not only about winning but also about helping the team with my quality, and also by scoring goals," said Lewy, who was named the best player after the match.

Although the stage ultimately belonged to Lewy, Barca's goal fest became even more perfect thanks to the cool touch of Raphinha. The Brazilian national team player inspired his team's victory by scoring the opening goal. His movements, along with Lewy, were so dynamic on the left wing that they troubled Dortmund's defensive line.

Dortmund coach Niko Kovac is aware of how dangerous Barca is when playing at home. Since the group stage until now, the “Blaugrana” have not lost once at home. In addition, Kovac knows that Barca is very fond of exploiting the space between the defenders and the goalkeeper with a direct attacking style of play.

The style of play involving direct attacks without going through the ball possession phase has become a distinctive characteristic of Barca under Hansi Flick's management this season. In the past, Barca was known as a team with strength in ball possession. Flick has redesigned Barca's approach by playing more directly. With this method, Barca avoids losing attacking momentum caused by passing through phases of short ball exchanges.

Kovac then instructed his players not to be overly provoked by Barca's aggressive play. The approach was to defend deeply using a 4-4-2 formation when not in possession of the ball. The spaces between the lines were also compressed as much as possible to limit the movement of Barca's attacking line, led by Raphinha and Lamine Yamal.

This move successfully forced Barca to change its identity from playing direct to a more fluid ball movement from foot to foot to break down Dortmund's defense. Statistics indicate that Barca's ball possession in the first half reached 67 percent. Barca also recorded 286 accurate passes, far surpassing Dortmund, which made 115 passes.

Difficult to play directly, Barca lost its edge. Barca's series of attacks met a dead end several times. However, the opening goal that Barca had been waiting for was finally created thanks to Raphinha's tap-in which started from a dead ball scheme.

"In the first half we played a little too much, maybe. We wanted to score more goals and we did that in the second half," said Barca midfielder Fermin Lopez.

Raphinha's goal made the game no longer the same. To catch up, Dortmund inevitably increased the intensity of their attacks. Automatically, Dortmund's defense was no longer as solid as in the first half. This resulted in Barca's second goal scored by Lewy with a header. This goal relied on Yamal's fast transition and accurate switch play.

Leading by two goals, Barca became more comfortable in controlling the game. On the other hand, the motivation of Dortmund players suddenly collapsed. The vision of forcing Barca to abandon their identity fell apart. On the contrary, it opened the floodgates of Barca's goals as fast as possible and perfected their party in front of their own supporters.

Another aspect that caused Dortmund's crushing defeat was the effort to press Barca that was not balanced with strengthening the rest defense. Such negligence was mostly shown by Dortmund's full-back duo, Ramy Bensebaini and Julian Ryerson, who were several times late in closing the space. Barca's third goal, scored by Lewy, and the fourth goal from Yamal took advantage of these mistakes.

"We didn't play well. We played too weak, not compact enough and made simple mistakes. At this level, they punished us very hard. That's why we lost here," said Dortmund captain Emre Can.

Despite being favored to advance to the semifinals, Flick does not want his team to be arrogant. He said Barca has not confirmed anything. In addition, Dortmund still has a very good chance of turning things around in the second meeting next week.

“We are not qualified yet. Winning by this much is important and, when a team plays that well, goals usually flow. We don’t think we are qualified because you never know what can happen. Football is crazy. We will be determined to play like this again next week,” said Flick.

On the other hand, this victory maintains Barca's dream of winning four trophies at once this season (quadruple). "Blaugrana" has won the Spanish Super Cup which is the first trophy. Barca still has the opportunity to win the Spanish League, Champions League, and finally the Spanish King's Cup. (REUTERS)